Dismissing talks of a mid-term poll, two prominent allies of the UPA? NCP and RJD?on Thursday asserted that the government would not fall over differences between the ruling UPA and the Left on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Agriculture minister and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and railways minister and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, in separate news conferences said they did not foresee any snap polls. ??I don?t see any chance of a snap poll,?? Pawar said while Prasad declared there was not even a ?remote chance? of such a prospect.
The assertion came even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with IAEA chief Mohammad ElBaradei on Thursday, where the nuclear issue did come up for discussion. The IAEA director general had on Wednesday affirmed that there is no deadline for the agency to give its approval to India specific safeguards agreement.
It was also understood that national security advisor MK Narayanan also held discussions with the visiting dignitary and later briefed some UPA leaders on the issue.
The remarks by the NCP and RJD leaders is being interpreted in political circles as a clear signal to Congress leadership within the UPA that they are against moving ahead on the deal without addressing concerns raised by the Left. Pawar had earlier commented that the agreement could be passed only if the government was in place.
While conceding that differences persisted between the UPA and the Left on the deal, the NCP and the RJD have maintained that efforts were on to resolve them.
On Thursday, Pawar said the UPA-Left committee constituted to iron out the differences had already held four rounds of ??good discussions and we hope both sides would amicably and with full responsibility settle the issue in our future meetings.??
??No single party wants a snap poll as it is not in the interest of the nation. Let me tell you there is not even a remote chance of a mid-term election and all concerns voiced by the left would be addressed in an amicable and cordial atmosphere,?? said Prasad, one of the members in the UPA-left committee on the nuke deal.
